Philippines marks sovereign territory
The Philippines has installed buoys and opened command posts to assert its sovereignty in waters and islets it claims in the contested South China Sea, Adm. Artemio Abu, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) chief, said in May 2022.
The PCG set up five navigational buoys, each one about 9 meters long and bearing the national flag, near Lawak, Likas, Parola and Pag-asa islands, Abu told a local radio station, hailing “the resounding success of installing our sovereign markers.”
He said the PCG also established command observation posts on Lawak, Likas and Parola to boost Manila’s maritime domain awareness in the South China Sea, known in the Philippines as the West Philippine Sea. An estimated U.S. $5 trillion in international trade transits through the waterway yearly. (Pictured: Philippine Coast Guard personnel install structures for command observation posts in the South China Sea.)
Vietnamese and Chinese fishing boats, as well as Chinese coast guard vessels, had been spotted near Pag-asa, the largest Philippine-held territory and home to Philippine civilians, he said.
Chinese coast guard ships had previously blocked Philippine vessels on resupply missions to outposts manned by Philippine Marines in the disputed waters, among other abuses.
The new PCG outposts will “improve our capabilities in promoting maritime safety, maritime search and rescue, and marine environmental protection,” Abu said.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Vietnam have territorial claims in the South China Sea. Indonesia does not count itself as a party to territorial disputes but has claims to South China Sea waters off the Natuna Islands.
A 2016 ruling by an international tribunal affirmed Manila’s sovereign rights to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and an extended continental shelf and declared Beijing’s sweeping claim to virtually the entire sea legally invalid. Benar News
